


Shift

by Jackeline Harkness (Jackeline_Harkness)



Series: Survival [6]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Experimental equipment, M/M, Perception
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 07:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6745066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackeline_Harkness/pseuds/Jackeline%20Harkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things are simple and glaringly obvious. Others? Not so much. And Tony's a genius, thank you very much, so misreading things -or people, for that matter- is not something he does. Nope. Not at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shift

**Shift.**

 

“So, Brock,” Tony started while everyone continued eating breakfast normally. Or as normally as a group conformed by _them_ could do, at least . In any case, they all continued as they were, save for Steve, who seemed to freeze for a moment, tensing up and turning to look at the engineer.

“Mh?” the former STRIKE captain let out, not even pausing as he ate a pork link in a way Tony could only describe as… efficient. Or determined, maybe. The man was weird, in a way that Tony wasn’t used to.

“What’s your plan for today?”

“Not much,” he said before stuffing another link into his mouth. And of course that was his answer, since the guy didn’t do much these days, save for sweating his numerous issues off in the gym, fucking Barnes, and endlessly mopping around lamenting his life choices. Tony thought that he also spent at least a few minutes a day considering whether to return to Hydra or not, but the only time he’d suggested it, Steve had looked almost hurt for a couple of hours, so he was keeping those ideas to himself. 

“Well, do you think you could drop by the workshop later?” he felt Steve tense even more next to him, and seriously, what was wrong with him? He’d asked the question as innocuously as possible. 

“What for?”

Steve gave him an almost angry look but of course the guy was going to ask that question. Paranoia was technically his last name… although that was possibly the only reason he was still alive. Paranoia could actually be healthy. He’d have to use that in his next discussion with Pepper about mental and personality disorders.

“Nothing to worry about,” he shrugged. “Just to change your tracker.”

Tony was sure everything would’ve been fine, if not for Natasha giving him a look, Steve tensing even more, and Bruce looking guilty as hell. Tony could lie or sell half-truths with the best of them, but he could do nothing about the others. And wasn’t Natasha supposed to be the best of them all in that area? Evidently Bruce was starting to rub off on her.

“The tracker?” Bucky asked, and it was right there where Tony began to feel just a little bit nervous.

“Yeah. You know, that little thing that lets us find each other in an emergency and that _we all have_?”

Rumlow nudged Bucky’s arm with his own.

“Not that I didn’t expect something like that,” and, ok, Tony wasn’t going to look a proverbial horse in the mouth, but it was kind of disturbing how easily the guy accepted that sort of thing.

Steve’s childhood friend looked at his psycho boyfriend’s face , and the guy gave him a smile that had an incredible amount of smirk in it before nodding but, like Tony had found out before, stubbornness was one of the many things Steve and Barnes had in common.

“Why does it need to be changed?”

Tony felt a slight shiver at the way all the traces of Brooklyn bled from the guy’s voice, like it did when he was more Winter Soldier than Bucky Barnes. He opened his mouth, ready to let out a long, pseudo-scientific-sounding bullshit explanation, but Bruce spoke before he could even start.

“You have to understand, we couldn’t take the risk and do nothing about it. If you weren’t all with us, you could be a very real threat.”

Rumlow shrugged, doing a quite decent job of looking almost nonchalant.

“What is it? What did you do?” and yikes, Barnes was like a stray dog with a bone. 

“It’s a modified tracker that…”

“It has an added explosive charge,” Bruce interrupted him, the traitor. And why was Bruce friends with the Hydra psycho? Hell, why was _Tony_ friends with Bruce? 

Rumlow couldn’t mask his reaction to that and visibly tensed, but he caught Bucky’s wrist when he stood up indignantly.

“It’s perfectly safe!” Tony totally not squeaked. 

“It’s alright, James, it wasn’t armed,” Bruce said, all too calmly.

“Did you know about that?” Bucky demanded, murderous eyes fixed on Steve. And God, the hot-bloodedness was a common trait as well.

Steve looked guilty.

“Not when it was put in.”

“But you knew, before now.”

“Bucky…” the blond started.

“And you didn’t say a word! You let Brock walk around with a freaking bomb in…!”

“Hey!” Rumlow had stood as well, and he’d yanked Bucky’s wrist in a way that was both energetic and gentle at the same time. “It’s alright.”

“It’s not,” Bucky said with a voice that could freeze hot coffee. “And _you_ , how could you do something like this? You can call yourself whatever you want but you’re worse than Howard and…”

 “It was just a precaution. Last time we’d seen him conscious he was still leading a Hydra…” Tony wasn’t ashamed of admitting he took half a step back when Barnes took a step towards him, even as Steve put himself slightly between them. He hadn’t had the chance to completely analyze the mechanic arm yet, but he knew the serum alone would make Barnes more than capable of reducing him to a bloody stain on the walls with his bare hands.

“The Avengers thought I needed to be controlled that way even when I was under their close watch? Fuck, I’ll take that as a compliment,” the former Hydra commander said, but Barnes didn’t budge. “Hey. Aleksei, it’s alright,” he insisted.

“Like hell it is.”

“I’m sure it was safe to…”

“You believe that?” he lifted his gaze from Steve to look at Rumlow, who looked ready to fight even as he tried to calm the fucking Winter Soldier down. “You don’t know the Starks like I do.”

Rumlow hesitated just for an instant.

“Bruce wouldn’t have allowed it if it wasn’t safe. Even if he didn’t know from the start, the moment he found out and thought it was a risk, he would’ve done something. Right, Bruce?”

“Yes. Of course,” and old Brucie Bear  even gave them all his typical, tight-lipped smile.

“See? It’s alright. We can have it removed later, right? That’s what Stark was going on about.”

“No.”

“Let it go,” and suddenly Tony understood full well how that man who slunk around his tower like the defeated rat he was, had been able to work with both Captain America and the Winter Soldier. The change was composed of tiny elements, but the effect was huge. A part of Tony was glad that he’d injected the explosive into the crazy bastard, because the man standing in the middle of the common floor’s kitchen holding the Winter Soldier’s wrist was a real danger.

Bucky worked his jaw, as if he was chewing on the words he wanted to say.

“Stark will get it out _now_.”

Tony didn’t jump when Rumlow turned towards him, a silent question in his face.

“Yeah, sure, we could do it now,” he said, because suddenly it wasn’t only Rumlow staring at him anymore. Steve’s eyes were almost begging. Natasha looked interested. Clint was fucking enjoying it all as if it was a TV show. 

“Then let’s go.”

As the elevator went down to the workshop carrying him, Steve, Bruce, Rumlow and a fuming Bucky, Tony felt like those times when he’d been called to the Principal’s office back when he was a kid.

Tony broke apart from the group and gestured Rumlow towards a chair.

“Make yourself comfortable,” and he turned around to get his equipment ready. There wasn’t that much to do, since he’d been planning to do it that day, anyway. He had U hold a tray with the stuff he needed for him, and sent Dummy off to organize the mess of screws he’d left on the table just for that purpose.  He loved the bot, but Dummy was too accident-prone to have around while dealing with the Winter Soldier’s boyfriend. “Take the shirt off.”

Rumlow did as he was told, leaning back on the chair almost lazily. Tony had known he was an elite agent… but it looked like he had severely underestimated the guy. Evidently, he was as much a spy as a soldier, and apparently just as good at both things. Tony had been sure that he didn’t underestimate people anymore.

“Well, removing the tracker…”

“The _bomb_ ,” Barnes interrupted, in a tone that promised murder.

“Will be slightly harder than injecting it in is,” Tony continued, because he could retort to that, but he didn’t have a death wish. “So, we have anesthetic here.”

“Don’t need any,” Rumlow said, and wow, everyone seemed engaged in a contest to see who could sound the gruffest.

“The incision won’t be big,” Bruce explained, all rational and calm, “but it might take a bit of wiggling around. It won’t be exactly comfortable.”

“I’ve dug bullets out of myself more than once, I’ll be fine,” he exchanged a look with Bruce, and the scientist didn’t press.

Tony wasn’t so sure, since it would most likely hurt like hell and he didn’t want a metal hand through his chest if the Hydra goon suddenly started screaming in pain. He tried to find support in Steve, but the blond hottie was just standing there, evidently ready to prevent Tony from getting murdered, but also radiating disapproval like… like a whole sun of disapproval.

“Ok. Well, if you’re sure…” he said, taking the long, sharp tool.

“Just get the damn thing out,” Barnes didn’t move from where he was, but if he was a cat, he would’ve definitely been all puffed up and hissy as he watched his every move.

Bruce was close, and considering what his reactions to sudden violence were usually like, Tony wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse right at that moment.

With a generous spray of disinfectant, Tony steeled himself and then proceeded to follow Jarvis’ guide to jam the thing into the bastard’s already scarred flesh. He had to give it to him, he only tensed up as the steel tube went into his body, and he only grunted when Tony had to twist it a bit for the tip to capture the device, one hand reaching for one of Barnes’ but otherwise keeping still as a statue.

Tony pulled the thin tube out of the man’s abdominal cavity and felt himself relax. He generally trusted his tech blindly, but he knew better than anyone that things didn’t always go as planned, and the risks of the thing going off included a lot more than the simple explosion.

“There! Now,” he set the little device aside on the tray U was holding for him, for later detonation, and grabbed the gun he used for implants and such things. Injecting a tracker was a lot easier than removing one, and this time he placed the little thing next to a bone. If anything hit him hard enough to damage the tracker where it rested, it would shatter his ribs and most likely kill him, so there would be little need for the tracker anyway. He stepped back, a little smirk forming on his lips at a work well done and the way the tough guy was…

Tony felt his world view shift, like a camera lens readjusting its focus. Because Rumlow was holding onto Bucky’s hand alright, but whatever mocking comment had been forming on his tongue died away as he realized that the supposedly reformed terrorist wasn’t holding onto his boyfriend for comfort… he was holding the Winter Soldier back, grounding him and offering comfort even as he was the one being poked by the mean lovechild of a very thick needle and a very thin tube. Hell, the man was even rubbing tiny circles around Steve’s BFF’s wrist with his thumb.

“And, we’re done! Congratulations, now whenever emergency tracking is activated, you’ll show up along with the rest of the team. Welcome to the club!” he announced, because the thoughts in his head were turning way too serious and considerate for his own comfort.

“Thanks,” the man said as he got up from the chair, and Tony had to admire the level of sarcasm the guy could pack in a single word, especially since he was wiping the blood off his side with a clean towel. And where the hell had he gotten the towel? He sure as hell didn’t keep that kind in the workshop, and it looked too clean to having been lying around.

“Sure. Anytime.”

With a final nod, Rumlow shrugged his shirt back on and nudged Barnes, who followed him back to the elevator like an eager puppy.

 “Do you have any idea how bad that could have gotten?”

“Uh, I’d say it went fairly well,” Tony said, flopping down on a chair and giving his lover a winning grin.

“Mostly because Brock decided to not be pissed about it and play it cool,” Bruce commented, and Tony turned to glare at him.

“Whose side are you on? Seriously, Brucie, you hurt my feelings, you were my friend first!”

“This isn’t about being friends, Tony, it’s about not injecting explosives into people,” Steve said, all reasonable.

Tony let out a hurt noise, hands dramatically going up.

“That’s it! You’re a terrible friend, and you’re a terrible boyfriend. You’re both terrible people!” and he proceeded to masterfully avoid what Steve and Bruce were trying to talk about. Still, there, in the back of his mind, remained the certainty that even after all the research he’d done when Bucky had dragged the half-dead terrorist into his tower, he’d only seen the surface of what was obviously an impressive amount of layers. Understanding the guy would be a challenge. One Tony might poke at during his free time.

 

 [mr1]Hasta sus desayunos deben ser épicos XD

 [mr2]Me gustan las escenas desde el punto de vista de Tony, porque sus pensamientos son tan... tan Tony XD

 [mr3]C'mon, Tony, contigo nunca se está lo bastante alerta. Cada vez que abres la boca sube el pan, como dicen en mi tierra :P

 [mr4]Me encanta esta frase XDD

 [mr5]He dicho ya que me encanta cómo escribes a Tony? XD

 [mr6]Bruce, eres un bocazas XD

 [mr7]No, para nada. Hasta yo he podido oírlo XD

 [mr8]Brucie Bear XD

 [mr9]A punto de sacar las palomitas XD

 [mr10]La versión robótica de "vete a jugar un rato y no molestes a los mayores" XD


End file.
